Tauck Launching New Music of America: Nashville to New Orleans Tour in 2025

WILTON, CT (September 30, 2024) Tauck is introducing a new tour that traces the roots of country music, blues, jazz, rock and roll, and more in Nashville, Memphis, the Mississippi Delta and New Orleans. Debuting in 2025, the new Music of America: Nashville to New Orleans tour will feature the insights of filmmaker Ken Burns, creator of the award-winning films Jazz and Country Music, as well as numerous other documentaries exploring various aspects of American history.

The new nine-day Music of America: Nashville to New Orleans itinerary begins with two nights at the Four Seasons Hotel Nashville, followed by a two-night stay at The Peabody Memphis. After an overnight at The Westin Jackson in Jackson, Mississippi, the tour concludes with a three-night stay at The Ritz-Carlton, New Orleans. 

Along the way, guests will discover the intertwined stories of various American musical traditions at an array of revealing sites. Among other experiences, guests will enjoy a private "pre-opening" guided tour and a presentation by a professional songwriter at Nashville's Country Music Hall of Fame & Museum, before attending a live performance that evening at the Grand Ole Opry. In Memphis, a visit to the legendary Sun Studio (where Elvis Presley made his first recordings) precedes a Tauck-exclusive, after-hours tour of the singer's Graceland home. Dinner that evening is at the Presley Motors Automobile Museum, home to a collection of cars once owned by Presley, including his famous pink Cadillac. In Mississippi, guests will tour the Delta Blues Museum in Clarksdale, enjoy a Southern-style lunch and a performance at the historic Club Ebony in Indianola, and visit the nearby B.B. King Museum. And in New Orleans, a private jazz performance at Preservation Hall highlights guests' three-night stay in "The Big Easy."

Tauck's new tour also explores the region's rich culinary traditions and its compelling history, with a bourbon tasting and lunch at the historic Belle Meade plantation, a culinary demonstration and lunch at the New Orleans School of Cooking, dinner in New Orleans at Tujague's (specializing in traditional Creole cuisine), and a farewell reception and dinner at the city's famed eatery Galatoire's. Guests will also tour Houmas House and Gardens, enjoy guided city tours in Nashville, Memphis and New Orleans, and visit the acclaimed National World War II Museum in New Orleans.

Included in the price (from $6,290 USD* per person, double occupancy, plus airfare) are 19 meals, airport transfers, service charges and most gratuities, all admission fees, taxes and more. Tauck will offer departures in March through May, and in September and October, including a number of special Small Group departures averaging just 24 guests each.

A 15-YEAR PARTNERSHIP WITH KEN BURNS
The new Music of America: Nashville to New Orleans itinerary is being offered as part of Tauck's Ken Burns American Journeys portfolio of tours presented in cooperation with the acclaimed filmmaker. Regarded by many as "America's Storyteller," Burns has been honored with seventeen Emmy Awards, two Grammy Awards and two Oscar nominations.

Throughout the Music of America tour, Tauck guests will gain insights from Burns and his longtime collaborator Dayton Duncan as they view a series of exclusive-to-Tauck vignettes, or short videos, featuring anecdotes and personal observations provided by the two filmmakers. Topics highlighted in the vignettes include, among others, the crucial role of the Mississippi River in fostering the spread of America's musical genres, the birth of country music, the influential roles of New Orleans and Memphis in the development of jazz and rock and roll (respectively), and the life and legacy of Louis Armstrong, "The George Washington of Jazz."

2025 will mark the 15th season that Tauck and Burns have crafted and offered tours together, with more than a dozen itineraries (and well over 100 vignettes) included in their Ken Burns American Journeys portfolio. Next year's trips will include two recently enhanced and reimagined East Coast itineraries, In Freedom's Footsteps: New York to Washington, DC and Southern Charms: St. Augustine, Savannah & Charleston. Both will include vignettes exploring aspects of the American Civil War, and it was the 1990 series The Civil War that firmly established Burns as the country's preeminent documentary filmmaker.

Other offerings range from tours of the national parks in the American West and Southwest to a wintertime exploration of Yellowstone National Park, while guests on Tauck's Hidden Gems of New England itinerary enjoy a true "insider" treat; a Tauck-exclusive guided tour of the Walpole, New Hampshire studio where Burns and Duncan have long produced their award-winning films. 

Tauck's Ken Burns American Journeys trips are part of the company's larger collection of 33 North American tours and cruises, including four Tauck Bridges family adventures in the U.S. and Canada.

About Tauck: Celebrating its 100th anniversary in 2025, Tauck is a world leader in upscale guided travel, with more than 150 land tours, safaris, river cruises, small ship ocean cruises and family travel adventures to 70+ countries and all seven continents. In each of the last 27 years, Tauck has been honored in Travel + Leisure magazine's annual "World's Best Awards" celebrating the very best in luxury tours, cruises, hotels and more.

Those interested in more information can contact their local travel professional, call Tauck at 800 468 2825, or visit the company's website at www.tauck.com (www.tauck.ca in Canada, www.tauck.co.uk in the UK, www.tauck.com.au in Australia/New Zealand).


* $8,390 CAD / $9,540 AUD / £4,990 GBP

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